The French Revolution - In a Nutshell

The fifth in the new Naxos AudioBooks series "In a Nutshell", The French Revolution is a short and accessible introduction to one of the most important periods in European history. It brings vividly to life the implacable Robespierre, the frightened Marie Antoinette and the iconic image of the guillotine. But it also demonstrates the key role the Revolution played in the development of European politics.

From Muhammed to Burj Khalifa: A Crash Course in 2,000 Years of Middle East History

To untangle the modern Middle East conflict and the 2,000 years behind it, this book is divided into 25 concise chapters. Each one is devoted to a major theme in Middle East history, such as the beginning of Islam, the Crusades, Genghis Khan, and the beginning of Israel in 1948. They can be read in a few minutes, giving you a fast overview of the issues and help you to understand Middle East current events.

Napoleon - In a Nutshell

This ‘In a Nutshell’ guide explores the life and legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte, whose actions as the French military and political leader shaped European politics — his Napoleonic code influenced the judicial foundations of most of Western Europe. Under the First French Republic he successfully revolted against the First and Second Coalitions, and in 1804 the French Senate appointed him Emperor. In the early 19th century he led France to victory and helped the country become a dominant European power.

World War One: A Short History

In 1914, a new kind of war came about, bringing with it a new kind of world. World War One began on horseback, with generals employing bayonet charges to gain ground, and ended with attacks resembling the Nazi blitzkriegs. The scale of devastation was unlike anything the world had seen before: 14 million combatants died, a further 20 million were wounded, and four empires were destroyed. Even the victors' empires were fatally damaged.

Alexander, Hannibal, and Julius Caesar: Three Generals Who Conquered the Ancient World: History 1-Hour Reads

Of all the generals in the ancient world, none matches the accomplishments of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, and Hannibal of Carthage. Whatever their backgrounds, these rulers showed that the right military commander at the right time in history can destroy an empire, change civilization, and alter the course of world history forever.

The Story of World War II

Drawing on previously unpublished eyewitness accounts, prizewinning historian Donald L. Miller has written what critics are calling one of the most powerful accounts of warfare ever published. Here are the horror and heroism of World War II in the words of the men who fought it, the journalists who covered it, and the civilians who were caught in its fury. Miller gives us an up-close, deeply personal view of a war that was more savagely fought - and whose outcome was in greater doubt - than one might imagine. This is the war that Americans on the home front would have read about had they had access to previously censored testimony.

The Renaissance: In a Nutshell

The fifth in the new Naxos Audiobooks series "In a Nutshell", The Renaissance is a short and accessible introduction to the era that gave us Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Palestrina. The Renaissance swept across Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries, heralding intellectual revolutions in science, art, philosophy and politics, and marking a decisive shift towards modern thinking.

The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914

The Sleepwalkers is historian Christopher Clark's riveting account of the explosive beginnings of World War I. Drawing on new scholarship, Clark offers a fresh look at World War I, focusing not on the battles and atrocities of the war itself but on the complex events and relationships that led a group of well-meaning leaders into brutal conflict.

The American Civil War

Between 1861 and 1865, the clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. In those great battles, those streams ran red with blood-and the United States was truly born.

The History of the Sunni and Shia Split: Understanding the Divisions within Islam

Different branches of the same religion are the exception more than the rule, and they have had a profound impact upon history. The schism between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches influenced relationships between nations across Europe, and religious intolerance based on different Christian faiths led to persecution and outright violence across the continent for centuries.

The Guns of August

In this Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, historian Barbara Tuchman brings to life the people and events that led up to World War I. This was the last gasp of the Gilded Age, of Kings and Kaisers and Czars, of pointed or plumed hats, colored uniforms, and all the pomp and romance that went along with war. How quickly it all changed...and how horrible it became.

The Hundred Years War: The History of Europe's Most Famous War of the Middle Ages

Although it ended over 550 years ago, the Hundred Years' War still looms large in the historical consciousness of England and France, even if the name of the famous war is a misnomer. Actually a series of separate conflicts between the English and French monarchies, interspersed with periods of peace, its historical image is an odd one, in part because its origins were based on royal claims that dated back centuries.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Paul Bäumer is just 19 years old when he and his classmates enlist. They are Germany’s Iron Youth who enter the war with high ideals and leave it disillusioned or dead. As Paul struggles with the realities of the man he has become, and the world to which he must return, he is led like a ghost of his former self into the war’s final hours. All Quiet is one of the greatest war novels of all time, an eloquent expression of the futility, hopelessness and irreparable losses of war.

The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome

This is the first volume in a bold new series that tells the stories of all peoples, connecting historical events from Europe to the Middle East to the far coast of China, while still giving weight to the characteristics of each country. Susan Wise Bauer provides both sweeping scope and vivid attention to the individual lives that give flesh to abstract assertions about human history. This narrative history employs the methods of "history from beneath" - literature, epic traditions, private letters, and accounts - to connect kings and leaders with the lives of those they ruled.

War of Attrition: Fighting the First World War

The Great War of 1914-1918 was the first mass conflict to fully mobilize the resources of industrial powers against one another, resulting in a brutal, bloody, protracted war of attrition between the world's great economies. Now, 100 years after the first guns of August rang out on the Western front, historian William Philpott reexamines the causes and lingering effects of the first truly modern war.

Few mixtures are as toxic as absolute power and insanity. When nothing stands between a leader's delusion whims and seeing them carried them out, all sorts of bizarre outcomes are possible. Whatever their background, these rulers show that dynastic politics made sure that a rightful heir always got on the throne - despite that heir's mental condition - and that power can destroy a mind worse than any mental illness.

Confucius: In a Nutshell

Confucius stands alone among the world's great thinkers. Perhaps no other teacher has exerted so powerful a hold over so many people for so long. For two and a half millennia his sayings, preserved and developed by generations of his followers, have shaped the cultural and political life of the world's most populous nation, and they continue to offer fresh insights for today's globalized society. This audiobook sets Confucius's life and teachings in the context of the long history of China....

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly, and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Based on four years of intensive primary document research, Lawrence in Arabiadefinitively overturns received wisdom on how the modern Middle East was formed. Sweeping in its action, keen in its portraiture, acid in its condemnation of the destruction wrought by European colonial plots, this is a book that brilliantly captures the way in which the folly of the past creates the anguish of the present.

Publisher's Summary

History for busy people. Listen to a concise history of World War One in just one hour. World War One brought with it the world’s first experience of Total War, involving all of the world’s great powers, polarized between the Triple Entente, led by Britain, France and Russia, and the Central Powers, dominated by Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary. Around nine million men lost their lives in a conflict that introduced the horrors of trench warfare, machine guns, and toxic gas attacks.

World War One: History In an Hour gives you a clear overview of the road to war, the major turning points and battles, and the key leaders involved, as well as the lasting impact the Great War had on almost every country in the world. World War One: History In an Hour is essential listening for all history lovers.

What the Critics Say

"If the past is a foreign country, History in an Hour is like a high-class tour operator, offering delightfully enjoyable short breaks in the rich and diverse continent of our shared past" (Dominic Sandbrook)

"The practice of History is ever-evolving, and the History In An Hour idea brings it back up to date for the digital age." (Andrew Roberts, Bookseller)

Obviously, one can not go into detail in an hour when covering such an important and well documented chapter of world history. The author does a good job of progressing from event to event without editorializing or engaging in "what if?" questions.

It is a nice refresher of the major players and events from the war to end all wars.

It's Memorial Day weekend here in the USA and I wanted to refresh my understanding of the five years of war leading up to Armistice Day. Beautifully read and not at all controversial. Very well-produced and performed. And only an hour.

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It is an hour well spent brushing up on the basic timelines of WW1. There are a few interesting back stories of the main events and it covers it well. It would be a good introduction to the story of the Great War and is well told. However it is not meant to be a thorough book - it brushes over most of the main points. I have a bookshelf of WW1 books and this skims the surface but it is worth a read especially if you don't know much about the war.

Is informative and insightful narrative to the events of this truly epic/horrific event in our past that shouldn't ever be forgotten. We all think we know about the these events but we all learn something new from the event leading up to 1914 . So this is a great and interesting narrative and eye opening in parts.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Dean

5/5/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"A worthwhile listen. "

An amazing short look at a long and horrific, but still very interesting time in human history.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Amazon Customer

SOLIHULL, United Kingdom

12/23/12

Overall

"world war one"

most families lost loved ones during both wars,my family in the second.its a very subjective issue has to what soldiers orders, on going over the top ammounted to in terms of loss of lives against ground gained

0 of 1 people found this review helpful

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